{"id":23361,"date":"2025-10-30T23:21:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/23361\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T23:21:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:21:06","slug":"meet-deblasio-the-man-newspaper-confused-with-ex-nyc-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/23361\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet DeBlasio, the man newspaper confused with ex-NYC mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than a decade, a Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio has been receiving emails meant for another man with a near-identical name: former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n

Last week, he decided to respond \u2014 inadvertently setting off an\u00a0international news cycle<\/a>\u00a0based on misinformation in the final days of New York City\u2019s mayoral election.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, a Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio has been receiving emails meant for another man with a near-identical name: former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
\n
Last week, he decided to respond \u2014 inadvertently setting off an\u00a0international news cycle\u00a0based on misinformation in the final days of New York City\u2019s mayoral election
\n
After receiving an email from a reporter with the Times of London asking for his \u2014 well, de Blasio’s \u2014 thoughts on\u00a0Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, DeBlasio replied with a four paragraph critique of the candidate\u2019s agenda, which the real ex-mayor has enthusiastically endorsed<\/p>\n

After receiving an email from a reporter with the Times of London asking for his \u2014 well, de Blasio’s \u2014 thoughts on\u00a0Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, DeBlasio replied with a four paragraph critique of the candidate\u2019s agenda, which the real ex-mayor has enthusiastically endorsed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did some research on the proposals and I wrote down my thoughts and used ChatGPT to do a little fine-tuning,\u201d DeBlasio, 59, told The Associated Press. \u201cThen I forgot about it and went on vacation. I never thought it would make it into the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it did.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive story published online Tuesday night, the Times of London reported the former New York City mayor had now concluded that Mamdani’s ambitious agenda \u201cdoesn\u2019t hold up under scrutiny.”<\/p>\n

De Blasio, the politician, quickly\u00a0disavowed<\/a>\u00a0the piece on social media. Within hours, it was deleted. The Times of London has since\u00a0apologized<\/a>, saying in a statement that its reporter had been \u201cmisled by an individual claiming to be the former New York mayor.”<\/p>\n

DeBlasio, the wine importer \u2014 whose identity was first\u00a0reported Thursday by Semafor<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 disputes the newspaper\u2019s retelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn no way shape or form did I call myself the mayor,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reporter addressed me as Mr. DeBlasio and I answered him as Mr. DeBlasio. They accepted my quote without any vetting \u2014 now they\u2019re blaming me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been Bill DeBlasio for 59 years,\u201d he continued. \u201cMy father has been Bill DeBlasio for 85 years. My son has been Bill DeBlasio for 30 years. It\u2019s our name, you know?\u201d (De Blasio, the mayor, is 64, but has had his name for less time: He was born Warren Wilhelm Jr. and later adopted his mother\u2019s maiden name, de Blasio.)<\/p>\n

He provided screenshots of the emails confirming the reporter had not specifically addressed his questions to the former mayor.<\/p>\n

Still, DeBlasio acknowledged that he hadn’t gone out of his way to correct the misunderstanding: \u201cI said if you have any further questions, speak with my advisers, and I put my friends\u2019 names in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all thought it was absolutely hilarious,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The ex-mayor does not share this view. In an op-ed\u00a0published in The Nation<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday, he blamed the episode on a \u201chyperpartisan\u201d journalism landscape where \u201cstandards of objectivity and decency are decaying week by week.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Times of London said the outlet would not be commenting further on the mix-up.<\/p>\n

DeBlasio, of Long Island, meanwhile, said the prank felt like fair payback for years of harassment he has endured as a result of his nominal link to the two-term mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had thousands of interactions with people, angry, mean, nasty people just saying the most horrible, horrific things,\u201d he said. \u201cIt got to a point where I was getting messages every day telling me how horrible of a human being I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a New York Mets game years ago, DeBlasio briefly met de Blasio, who offered him an apology for the hate mail, he said.<\/p>\n

Describing his own politics as \u201cmiddle of the road\u201d conservative, DeBlasio said he would likely support Mamdani\u2019s opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, if he were eligible to vote in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real Bill DeBlasio endorses Cuomo,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can print that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For more than a decade, a Long Island wine importer named Bill DeBlasio has been receiving emails meant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[117,109,106,25,118,15295,9,24,12,110,63,87,122,124,123,27],"class_list":["post-23361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-national-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-nationwide","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nnt","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}